Home Sweet Home

Over the past week, I've felt more and more at home in San Carlos and Guaymas. I can't really say there's one special thing that makes me feel at home here. It's just all of it. I like the rental house and the view. It's really comfortable and Teddy and Niko settled in here right away. Right now the neighborhood is pretty much like a ghost town. All of the snow birds are long gone and the diehards left a few weeks ago. It's just us and a few people who stay all year.

I'm at a point where I am going to learn Spanish well no matter what because I truly feel like I am missing half of the fun of living here. I have Rosetta Stone CDs, a program Bliss forwarded to me and I'm going to a Spanish conversation class each week....just went to my first one yesterday. I loved it and the hour flew by. We talked about the summer heat, the CFE (electric company) summer discounts that occur from July through October (yay), and a whole bunch of other topics. It's interesting that the people of Guaymas banded together and staged a "power out" as part of the strategy to get the power company to subsidize the summer power bills. I'm not sure that could even be pulled off in the US. It's interesting also, that this doesn't occur in all of Mexico; certainly here in Sonora and I believe Sinaloa, but not Jalisco or Nayarit, where we lived before.

Part of the feeling of belonging is making new friends too. The weekend with our blogger friends was really special and it gave me a real lift too. It just feels like I ended up in the right place and I'm looking forward to more settling in. Now if I could just get those last few boxes unpacked. I'm more motivated today since I more a pair of ridiculous sandals yesterday to our Spanish class and I tripped on the sidewalk and really hurt my foot. Normally I wear my chacos (really comfortable and sensible sandals) but I couldn't really find them.

Here's another thing about living here too. The neighbors that are here for the summer are super neighbors. They offer to drive us to the airport if needed and this morning, Jim stopped by and told me he sprayed the weeds (organic sort of) in front of our house since he was doing his anyway. I have to admit that I stopped being a friendly and helpful neighbor when we lived in Playa Las Tortugas because it didn't seem like an accepted thing to do. It was kind of sad. Now I've got my faith back!

I've really been missing my grandkids too, but they called the other night and my four year old grandson, Garrett (who has never talked on the phone to us before), got on the phone and talked and talked about his trucks and all sorts of things. Ok, he was mostly yelling into the phone, but I loved it. My nine year old granddaughter, Hallie, has decided to started a business with her sewing skills online. I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled it off. It was a great conversation.

Oh, and the best thing....hummingbirds are coming to our new feeder. I am absolutely thrilled! Now I'm really at home here.